Masters Attracts Friendly Group

Masters Attracts Friendly
Group

Day one of the Masters went extremely
well. They are indeed a fine group to work with. Being an
official in a avriety of sports, I have had my days when officiating was a
less than rewarding experience. The times when parents would come up at
the Provincials and display their disgust because a moose crossed the trail in
front of their son and that resulted in Johnnie losing 3 seconds off his
precious time and he came in 17th instead of 16th. Well, that never
really happened in cross country, but in other sports crazy things have occurred
and officiating can be challenging. But with the masters, you just
throw the names on a sheet, get come great helpers like Guy Roy, Jim Gallant,
Bert Young, Earl Hunt, Jim , Dave, Georgina and some Duke students ... ask
everyone to more or less seed themselves ... yell "Allez!" and they
all head out and come back like a cow at milking time. And they say: "What
a great day to be alive ..beautiful trail ... what a great course ... it
was a great ski!" Yes, the masters was wonderful today and tomorrow will
attract more skiers and it will be even a better event, if that is
possible. After the races today I was chatting to Bruce who is the
originator of the Masters and is responsible for it as an annual event at
Whaleback and we discussed how the Masters is a big fundraiser for
the club and will put approximately $400. (minus some expenses) in the coffers
of Whaleback Nordic. Maybe we should be advertising it as
a

NL Cross Country Ski Masters Championships


and Whaleback Fundraiser

Not being a competitive racer myself, I must say it
was enjoyable to be on the course today and feel the blood pumping again ... and
when Carter Powers passed me I said to myself this is indeed a friendly
competition and off I went in hot pursuit .. and then Stephen Penney said
move over ... for a while I felt like a long wide load on the TCH .... But it
was indeed fun and when I crossed the finish line and saw all the smiling faces
complete with dripping noses and heard all the congratulatory salutations .. I
said yeah .. it's a nice day to be celebrating fitness. So tomorrow I'm in
the line-up again .. watch out Carter and Steve Penney and Jack White and Bruce
Le Grow ... Where is Alf Parson at a time like this when you get all fired
up? Paul Green will be but a distant memory in my review mirror tomorrow
... oh how trash talk is just so much fun when you don't really mean it in a
serious way. From the back of the pack ... GO

(Maybe I'll have Jackie Le Grow in my sights
tomorrow ... no she's much tooooooo fast ... Earl Hunt ?
Doug Fowlow? ..... We'll see. If there are any more would-be
participants out there you can drop me a note. I'll put you
in the line up .. even tomorrow morning. We're the Happy gand
remember. Start time is 11:00 tomorrow and we will be finished by 12:00
... members don't shy aeway come ski when you want the coourse is open as per
usual.